When I was looking at the career AV of offensive starting units for last Thursday's post, I also looked at the top overall offensive units (as measured by career value) and one of them stuck out like a sore thumb. The top 20 units mostly matched up with teams we generally think of as great offenses. Half of them were 49ers teams from 1986-1996. A couple of Colts teams with Manning/James/Harrison were on the list. Three versions of Air Coryell. The 1995 Cowboys. The 1996-1997 Broncos. The 2002 Chiefs.

Then there were the 1991 Minnesota Vikings, sitting at #14 on the list with an average career AV per offensive starter of 74.3. That team went 8-8, and finished 13th in points scored (out of 28 teams). The other top offenses on the list averaged 11.5 wins and an average finish of 3.7 in points scored. The Simple Rating System (SRS) score of -2.0 also shows that the Vikings were roughly an average team in 1991. This team also had above average defense by career AV, with a defensive line that included John Randle,Chris Doleman and Henry Thomas. But it was on the offensive side of the ball that this team should have been so much better. So why were they so mediocre in 1991?
Let's start with a look at the lineup.

QB: A 32-year old Wade Wilson started the season opener, but gave way to 26 year old Rich Gannon in the sixth game (more on that in a minute). Gannon had started 12 games the previous season, and started 11 games in 1991. Gannon was out of football and experienced a career revival late in the decade, culminating with winning Offensive Player of the Year in 2002 and leading the Raiders to the Super Bowl at age 37.

RB/FB: A 29-year old Herschel Walker was the starting running back for the Vikings, and he played in 15 games. 23-year old Terry Allen was a rookie, and played as Walker's backup, started the one game Walker missed, and started five games alongside Walker as fullback. A 30-year old Alfred Anderson was in his final season and started five games at fullback.

WR/TE: Cris Carter was 26 years old and was in his second season with the Vikings, his first as a full-time starter. Anthony Carter was coming off 3 straight 1,000 yard seasons from ages 28-30, and would start for two more seasons. Hassan Jones had been the starter before Cris Carter, and also started 7 games in 1991 as the third wide receiver. At tight end, Steve Jordan was 30 and still going strong, and was selected for the pro bowl.

OL: The line had 2 Hall of Famers playing side by side in LT Gary Zimmerman and LG Randall McDaniel. Zimmerman was 30 and McDaniel was 27 in 1991. The Center was Kirk Lowdermilk, who was 28 years old and would be a 10 year starter in the league with the Vikings and Colts. Tim Irwin was the RT, and at age 33 was the oldest starter. He had been the starting RT in Minnesota since 1982, and would continue to start for 2 more seasons. The RG position was split between Todd Kalis and Brian Habib. Kalis was 26 years old and had been the starter the previous two seasons. He started for five seasons in the NFL and has the lowest career AV of any starter on this team. Brian Habib was 27 years old, and would go on to start 8 seasons for Minnesota, Denver and Seattle. The five starters had been together for the previous two seasons, and Zimmerman, McDaniel, Lowdermilk and Irwin had started together since the 1988 season, and all of them started 16 games in 1991.

My first guess about why a team could underachieve compared to their career AV total is age-related, since I did not age-adjust the numbers. That does not appear to be the case here. None of them were in their final year as a starter, and only Allen had never started before in the NFL. The average starter age was 28.1, which is slightly below the average compared to other top 20 offenses on the career AV list. In fact, several of the key players were in their prime years, especially the left side and center of the line, with Zimmerman, McDaniel and Lowdermilk.

The obvious answer, then, is the quarterback position. That's certainly part of the answer. Wade Wilson was a disaster to start the season, throwing 10 interceptions in the first 5 games as the Vikings averaged only 10 points a game in a 2-3 start. After Rich Gannon took over as the starter, the team averaged 22.9 points per game, which over the full season would have equated to 366 points. That would have been good for 5th in the league. Still, while Gannon avoided interceptions, he only averaged 6.1 yards per attempt in 1991. Even if we accept that Gannon had an unusual career arc and was a much better QB after age 32, could he have been that bad, worse than replacement level? Elvis Grbac, Steve Bono, Jeff Kemp and Mike Moroski--hardly a murderer's row of QB's--averaged 7.16 yards per attempt in 23 starts for the San Francisco 49ers between 1986-1996.

The team appeared to be healthy in 1991, with 4 of the linemen starting every game, the receivers combining to miss 1 start, and the running back missing only 1 game. I'll throw it open to our resident Minnesota fans. Which ones are most overrated by career AV? Was it chemistry, coaching, key players who were playing while injured? Why was a team that had 2 Hall of Fame linemen and a likely soon to be Hall of Fame receiver (all in their primes), a QB who would win an Offensive Player of the Year award, a talented backfield, a top five tight end, and solid starters everywhere else, so unspectacular in 1991?

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I still distantly remember this season, and I'd only been watching football for two years, but I can remember that I didn't think much of any of our skill-position players. In terms of careers, you've got A. Carter, Walker, and Wilson past their primes (if Wade Wilson ever really had a "prime"), and Gannon, C. Carter, and Allen before their primes. Only Steve Jordan was still performing at a level equitable to his best seasons, but one tight end does not an elite offense make.

I can also remember the general frustration some fans (my mother in particular) had with the usage of Herschel Walker. We traded half our team for the guy and we barely used him. He had 184 carries in 16 games in 1990 and 198 in 15 in 1991 -- that's an average of just 12 carries per game. In games 6 and 7 of the 1990 season, he got three carries in each game. I remember that one was a Monday Nighter and he fumbled twice in those three carries, but he wasn't hurt. By the end of 1991, we were screaming for Jerry Burns to get the boot, and he did.

It also bears mentioning that the team didn't have a single owner at the time. I don't remember what the arrangement was, but they basically had a 10 (I think)-man board of executives who made the decisions, ostensibly headed up by a guy named Jeff Diamond. I'm not sure what kind of effect on personnel or other high-level decisions, but if you think one meddling owner is tough to deal with, try handling 10.

I seem to remember it coming down to QB play and coaching. By all accounts, Jerry Burns was a terrible head coach, and the Vikes always seemed to underachieve relative to their talent level. And while Gannon would later become a very good QB, remember that he was an option QB in college who was drafted as a DB, and this was only his second season as a starter. While the tools may have been there, it's understandable that his abilities to read defenses and make progressions weren't really developed in 1991.

My short answer would simply mirror what posts 1 and 2 have already said. The 1991 Viking team even had a home game waiting for them in the Super Bowl. Roman Numeral XXVI would have been extra incentive for them to succeed. But the team as a whole had already hit their highwater mark circa 1987-1988. The 1989 version of this team had Pro Bowl-credentialed players at every segment of offense and defense once Herschel Walker arrived. But they were clobbered in the playoffs by HoF legends Joe Montana and Jerry Rice.

As stated succinctly and eloquently above, the two main reasons of the 1991 Vikings’ mediocrity were poor coaching and poor play at QB. Despite playing a fifth-place schedule in ’91 and possessing a talent-laden roster, plus having the Super Bowl at home, none of the preseason publications penned the Vikes as playoff contenders. The only notable media personality who picked Minnesota to win it all was TNT’s Kevin Kiley and he cited Herschel Walker and a home Super Bowl site as the main attributes for a purple-and-gold surge in 1991. But no knowledgeable Viking fan took him seriously as 1990 (6-10 finish) seemed to be a true barometer of where the club was headed.

Overseeing the team was Jerry Burns, who perhaps waited too long to get a crack at the head coaching job. But when Hall of Fame coach Bud Grant retired in 1984 it was Les Steckel whom Grant recommended for the head coaching post, not Jerry Burns. “Burnsy” seemed to be better suited as an assistant running the offense and was instrumental in architecting a West-Coast style offense in the ‘70s with Fran Tarkenton and Chuck Foreman in the backfield and continued the system in the ‘80s with Tommy Kramer and Ted Brown accompanying receivers like Ahmad Rashad and Sammy White, then later A.C. and Steve Jordan. But when Burns hired Bob Schnelker as offensive coordinator in 1986 he relinquished his role on planning the offense and delegated all the preparation to his assistants. Schnelker’s passing game called for deeper routes and the dink-and-dunk system would come to an end. But it was a famous Burnsy rant in 1989 in which he castigated Viking fans and defended Schnelker to the hilt that painted a picture telling followers that the game was beginning to pass up Burns. At the end of that season, under immense pressure, Schnelker was let go and Burns stayed on for two more years.

At QB Wade Wilson was on a severe decline in ’91 and Rich Gannon was still very young and an unproven commodity. The Rich Gannon of 1991 bared no resemblance to the Rich Gannon of 2002 that earned MVP honors. He wasn’t comfortable in the pass pocket and often gave up too early trying to locate his receivers. He also wasn’t a very effective runner either. This was not a Roger Staubach of 1970-1971. Although Gannon put up decent numbers in 1991 the quarterback position was largely left unattended by a Viking coaching staff that had previously given up on Steve Bono and eventually would jettison Rich Gannon. It wasn’t until three seasons after a regime change that Dennis Green got serious about acquiring an elite passer like Warren Moon in 1994.

If you look at the Viking roster of 1991 it looks like a team loaded with Hall of Famers, MVPs, and All Pros. It was. But it was also a revolving door of players not quite on the rise and others starting a steep decline. Cris Carter, Terry Allen, and John Randle were not yet Pro Bowlers but starting their ascent. Herschel Walker and Anthony Carter were at or near their declines and Chris Doleman seemed to have an off-year. But Walker was a north-south runner most comfortable as a tailback in the I-formation. Under Tom Moore’s offensive system and the Vikings’ existing legacy system the RBs were called upon to run east-west and be involved heavily in the passing game. Walker was not an ideal fit for that scheme and 1991 was the make-or-break year for the infamous trade with Dallas to pay off. Walker had his best year in ‘91 but it fell way short of Chuck Foreman-esque production.

Bad chemistry also had its effect on Minnesota’s less-than-stellar play. Some of the players in the locker room seemed to be more concerned about Pro Bowl selections and player salaries – even Bobby Bonilla’s contract in baseball – than their record on the field. I won’t mention names here, but the beat writers for the Star Tribune and Pioneer Press each had their own personal accounts of what took place off the field. Also, the Vikings were notorious back then of having trouble with the law. FNN’s sports shows airing at the time even gave the Vikes the dubious honor of the “Give us your keys please” award.

The front office also had its troubles, but not in terms of the law. General Manager Mike Lynn never consulted with Jerry Burns on the prospects of having Herschel Walker in a Viking backfield, as opposed to some other RB, which the Vikings needed. Lynn, without a football background, then became more focused on NFL Europe and departed to run that operation. The Carl Pohlad ownership group would eventually be succeeded by a group led by Roger Headrick and then Red McCombs. It wasn’t until McCombs came along that any owner had formed a vision for winning along with selling tickets.

But as bad as 1991 was, it would give way to a decade of prosperity with Dennis Green at the helm and new ownership that saw playoff appearances in eight of the next nine seasons. But that’s another chapter.

The answers above are all good ones so this is more of a minor footnote. Cris Carter's career is truly remarkable when looking at how little he managed to accomplish before age 28 and then how staggeringly brilliant he was from age 28 to age 35. The story of Carter's early career has been written up a few times, but I wouldn't presume to speculate here to what extent Carter sorted his own life out and was on the road to stardom versus to what extent the arrival of Denny Green made a significant difference in Carter's life.

I agree with mostly everything that was written! My opinion is that this franchise has never gotten over the loss to the AFL's representative The Kansas City Chiefs in 1969. They were one of the best teams in Super Bowl History but they loss to what I thought was an underrated team who presented Matchup problems in every aspect of the game. They had to play the same opponent from the AFC conference in Superbowls VIII, VIIII, and XI which were Miami( a heavy running team with a physical offensive line) Pittsburgh( with Hall of Fame fullback Franco Harris, Vietnam Vet Rocky Blier) who was not a good offensive team with a then, struggling Quarterback Terry Bradshaw, but they were a good rushing team with a big, physical offensive line. And, lastly, they had to face off with a team that had the label of "CAN'T WIN THE BIG ONE" who was seen as a team with the greatest misfits and rulebreaking renegades in NFL history. From the first snap of that game the Raiders were out to proove something to the rest of the NFL that day. They ran the football at will and dominated one of the best defensive lines at that time in the Purple-People Eaters. They were a physical running team with Hall of Famers Gene Upshaw and future raider coach Art Shell who, along with fullbacks Pete Banasak and Van Heagan bruished and bashed the front wall of the Vikings who were a very good defense at the time. They could not stop those rushing games of the AFC at that time and was often outbested by the Dallas Cowboys of the 70's! Then, on top of it they stupifying moved from Metropolitan Stadium to a dome after the 81 season which is NOT football. Football wise, I hate domes and aftificial turf but some teams have them. These factors are what I think is keeping them from reaching a superbowl let alone winning one. Without the MET, The vikings are simply NOT the vikings. When they had the MET, it was an advantage and could be again. When management foolishly traded the MET for the comfort of that stupid dome they never saw another superbowl or won many playoff games. When one adds in all the history of the failures at the superbowls you can see a team and its fans do not believe that they will ever win a superbowl and bringing back Farve will not bring them a ring.

Re: post #6: The Viking franchise, as it is currently comprised, has virtually no recollection of past Super Bowl defeats. The only employee on the payroll who is left over from any of those Super Bowl fiascos is Bud Grant, who is still a consultant to the team. But other than that there is essentially no link to the past at the team's headquarters aside from plaques on the walls. Even the fan base has practically no memory of the 60s and 70s as most of the team's attendees at home games is predominantly among the 18-34 year-old crowd.

But surprisingly (at least to me) very little has been made of a possible curse at play regarding the Vikings' inability to win a world championship. The franchise has been in existence now for 50 years and has never laid a legitimate claim to being #1. We heard about the Red Sox and the Bambino curse for so many years and still hear about the Cubs' supposed hex. But nothing ever gets national attention about the Vikes always seeming to fall short. But the Red Sox and Cubs have such huge national followings whereas the Vikes have been operating under the radar for most of the past 30 or so seasons.

Last year's NFC championship made me wonder more about a jinx. As bad as the officials' calls were in that game, the Vikes had every opportunity to pull the game out. The sight of Brett Favre placing his hands on his earholes while on the ground after a fumble near the Saints goal line was something I had not seen him do all season and it came at the worst moment. It was like he was saying "I can't believe this is happening." The missed field goal in 1998 after a 15-1 season was also a shocker.

But while the Vikings have some notoriety for losing four Super Bowls, they are not alone. And there are other teams who might be under the same spell that has kept them from returning to the season finale. The Detroit Lions have had a curse of their own. When Bobby Layne was traded to Pittsburgh the Lions were never the same. No Super Bowls or NFL title games since 1957. 17 years later the Lions moved into a Dome and their personality changed. Likewise, when Joe Kapp left in 1970 the Vikes - the last champions of the original NFL - never won a Super Bowl and have not appeared in one since January of 1977. 12 years after Kapp left the Vikes moved into their own Dome.

Mike Ditka has gone on record saying that he felt the Vikes "lost a part of their character" when they moved indoors. That may be true in terms of team personality but it has not been a compelling enough reason for no championships. The St. Louis Rams lifted the "No Dome team has ever won a Super Bowl" hex in 1999 and the Indy Colts also proved that having a Dome was not a deterrent for winning championships. So I don't subscribe to the notion that an indoor team can't win the big one.

Also, since moving into the Dome the Vikings have appeared in the postseason 15 times out of the last 28 seasons. That's more than any other team in the NFC Central/North and trails only San Francisco and Pittsburgh as far as the entire NFL is concerned.

Minnesota, believe it or not, is currently the 5th-ranked franchise in terms of all-time winning percentage among the 32 clubs. So as bad as the Super Bowl losses and chokes have been, there has indeed been a lot to cheer about over the past 50 years.

Just another footnote to the 1991 Vikings and the follow-up posts regarding a possible curse on Minnesota not winning the big one. Since 1961 when the Vikes began play only two teams have won more regular season games - Pittsburgh (416) and Dallas (435). The Steelers and Cowboys also have 11 Lombardi trophies between them. Then comes Minnesota, with 408 wins and zero trophies. It sticks out like a sore thumb. The top 11 teams, in terms of wins since 1961 each have at least two Super Bowl championships - all except Minnesota. It is astonishing that a team so successful in winning so many regular season games has no single year in which they could claim to be number one.

I think looking at who is on a roster and their overall career has very little to do with how they should do in a given season. I agree with a lot of what has been said here, so at the risk of sounding repetitive, I will put together my own explanation. First, the quarterback position. After the departure of Fran Tarkenton in 1978, the Vikings seemed to have a very good heir apparent in Tommy Kramer. Kramer, for all his talents, proved to be too injury proned and his off the field problems with substance abuse only led to more problems..which as you will read, were a common theme on the Vikings in the mid-80s, early 90s. Beyond the strike-shortened 1982 team, Kramer started more than nine games only three times from 1983-89. For whatever reason this same problem continued to plague the team for the next decade. Gannon, eventually was a very good quarterback, but it was well after his playing days in purple were over. Wade Wilson, who filled in for an injured Kramer for much of the 1980s, was never meant to be a full-time starter, great football mind, just not enough skills. That, more than anything, is why the "talent-laden" Vikings failed that year. But for sake of argument, I will give the other reasons. First, while the team may have had two Hall of Famers on their offensive line, that statistic is very misleading. As stated, Randall Mcdaniel was just starting what would become a Hall of Fame career, and Gary Zimmerman would arguably be more remembered for his career with the Broncos, blocking for John Elway and Terrell Davis, which brings me to my next point. An offensive lineman's main jobs are to give their quarterback time to throw and to open holes for the running game. Well your offensive line can block all day long, but if the quarterback has an average arm, or no field presence, or if your running backs have no field presence, it doesnt matter if you have FIVE hall of fame offensive linemen. Zimmerman had it with the Broncos, not with the Vikings. Tim Irwin was one of my favorite players, and he was very durable and very consistant for a whole decade, but he was good, not great, and by 1991, he was old. Kirk Lowdermilk was a serviceable center, but thats it. Todd Kalis and Brian Habib put together couldnt form one good right guard. Herschel Walker was good in Dallas because they had a variety of weapons, including a consistant quarterback, and a decent offensive line. As stated, the other weapons had already peaked. Anthony Carter and Steve Jordan were very good, but not without an every day quarterback, and Cris Carter was not yet who he would become. Hassan Jones was a used up third down receiver. What doomed this squad, as well as the 1990 squad, was the Herschel Walker trade itself. The vikings lost two very dependable defensive stars in Jesse Solomon and Ike Holt, but was more is GM Mike Lynn basically drained Minnesota's draft for 1990, 91, 92, and 93. That is horrible in and of itself, but when you look at the fact that we were looking at very little talent at quarterback and running back, it made it very hard to plan for the future with a lot of the other positions quickly getting old. Another big reason for the lack of production for the 1991 season was the loss of their dominance on defense. What the Vikings of the late 80s were known for more than anything was their dominating defensive line, which many predicted would be the second coming of the Purple People Eaters. That possibility came to an abrupt end with the injury to Keith Millard. After being named Defensive Player of the Year in 1989, he blew out his knee the following season but was expected to be back. He wasn't and the Vikings failed to prepare for that fact, not that they could do much, with no high draft picks. John Randle was a welcomed surprise, but was still playing out of position at defensive end, splitting time with Al Noga, who had also peaked. The loss of long-time linebacker and long-time team captain Scott Studwell with no clear replacement was another big blow. One thing that probably was not evident to any fans outside of Minnesota were the off-field problems. Many of the Vikings, not just Millard were substance abusers and partiers. Other than that, contract disputes, hold out threats and retirment threats were beginning to pop up with the mismanagement of GM Mike Lynn becoming more of a problem. Also, many of the team's top stars publicly called Mike Lynn a racist. One thing I will disagree with was the lack of a good coach. Maybe Jerry Burns would have been a better coach had he gotten the chance earlier, but he still did pretty good with what he had. Bud Grant wanted Jerry Burns to take over, Not Les Steckel in 1984. Grant came back for a year, under the condition they would give the job to Burns. People seem to forget, Burns was a part of six Super Bowls as an offensive coordinator, no one else can say that.

The reason the Vikings were able to rebound in 1992 was the fact that they were able to fix, at least temporarily, the problems I discussed above. The ownership deal that divided ownership amongst ten people happened at the very end of the 1991 season, and I actually think that helped, it gave Mike Lynn less power. The biggest differences in 1992 may have been the emergence of Terry Allen and the reforming of the defensive line with the emergence of John Randle at his rightful position of undertackle and the return to dominance of Henry Thomas and Chris Doleman at least for a year or two.